Comp Organization--Stuff We Like - Stuff We Don't Like

This is my dream comp: one week prior there are heat lists posted on line, the comp is located within 20 minutes of the airport for an inexpensive shuttle ride, the hotel is nice, the rooms are comfortable and quiet, there is a good practice room near the ballroom. Meals are conveniently located, both at the restaurant and in the ballroom. The comp starts on time and keeps on schedule without depriving anyone of their full time to dance. There are a mixed variety of judges who are truly objective and spend enough time to evaluate each dancer. They take their judging seriously from the bronze level to the open gold and recognize the importance and hard work each student brings in to the competition. The music is a mixture of current and traditional. Judges are spread across the ballroom so there is not a cluster of dancers at the end. Single dance awards are given and there is enough time for scholarship awards for a little bit of absorption at that moment, rather than "line up quick, take your picture, leave". Awards are useful items and the organizer truly seems to be happy to see you there. Results are posted on line quickly. That would be a perfect comp!

The only other thing I will add, I can't stand still in the ballroom, I pace a lot and am always looking for that tiny bit of real estate that I can just be alone with my thoughts... I dont like comps where the tables are so close together and all the way to the back wall so I feel like I cant move... Yea, I am not very social between my heats!

The comp is all about efficiency? I don't think so, it is all about the participants. If feeding the judges is an issue due to the time 'running over' it is the comp manager's issue, not the participants. If overtime needs to be paid because the comp scheduled things fancilfully rather than realistically, then the overtime costs are the education costs of the comp business, not something that the participants are punished for. The people who paid to be in the comp's main issue is the participation, not their time frame. Comps that can't schedule or run correctly need to fix their issues, not put them on the dancers.

Interesting perspective about judges feeling that after they hand in their marks that the time till the next heat, including the dancing till the end of that dance, is simply something to be endured...

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I so agree with this, sometime I think that the competition organizers forget that the dancers are their customers and should be treated as such. That includes providing the full dance time. I enjoy competing and the time on the floor. If the customers are not happy because the dance time is short will they continue to come back?

HATE HATE HATE comps that do not allow outside photography. Also do not appreciate places that only have one, very crowded area to practice before (esp. when that one area has a floor that is not at all conducive for dancing.)

having just competed a few things come to mind; I hate it when the organizers do not provide towels in the ball room and I hate it when there is no one monitoring the water supply...I consider these things basic, yet essential.....

I don't like it when a comp has me dance late in the evening when there are no major events that evening as basically you are trying to dance around 11 at night and no one is there to watch

I loved RPI's comp last year for the very reason that I think they really wanted to cater to their participants-- on the tables for every team they counted out the correct number of water bottles for the number of people competing from that team, and they left us candies on the tables, too. Also, they scheduled in a lunch hour, which very few comps do and it was very welcome. Everything ran on time with fun dances scheduled into the day. I am looking forward to going back this year.

Things I hate: Comps with poor music choice (this includes pauses in the music, poor tempo, etc), comps that do not notify you of whether you made the next round or not until they yell the numbers over the loudspeaker at the time the round is ready to be run (projectors are awesome! But even comps that write out the numbers for the next round on a sheet of paper and tape it to a wall are better than the yelling numbers last minute), poor announcing (at my first comp as a Newcomer the announcer yelled out the wrong dance, said it was an American Foxtrot Semifinal when it was supposed to be an American Waltz semifinal and because of it my partner and I missed our Waltz Semifinal-- everyone on our team who went were Newbies so none of us knew we could go up and argue to try to get them to restart the round), and comps in which one cannot register up in order to dance events unavailable at your level (My partner and I were so upset at Brown last year that they didn't run Bronze I-Tango and didn't allow couples to dance it up a level at Silver because it was our favorite dance and our last competition together).

Also, this thread is definitely really helpful since UMass is trying to plan our first comp for the fall, so I'm enjoying looking through to see if I can gather any ideas. If anybody has anything they would really like to see at a comp that maybe they haven't before, or anything then please do let me know.

There are going to be significant differences in amenities between different kinds of comps -- collegiate vs. amateur vs. pro/pro-am. And that's to be expected, what with the differences in price and in the professionalism and experience of the organizers and workers. At a comp at a hotel, I would expect towels (yes, real towels for sweat-wiping) and pitchers of water. At a collegiate comp in a school gym, as long as the actual dancing is organized smoothly, with appropriate music and good judges, I wouldn't expect extras.

in order to get to the on deck area you had to exit the gym and come back in on the other side

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What do you mean by towels? I've never actually attended a comp that provided towels. Like do you mean like legit like towels or like paper towels or what? I'm guessing you mean regular towels available for sweaty competitors? Something like that?

I think the only comp I've seen that had towels for competitors was Ohio. I can't imagine that laundry services is too thrilled about having to launder them, with all crud that ballroomers leave on them.

if I stay on site, I have a towel from my room....if I don't stay on site, sometimes I will forget a towel....I am always really grateful when the organizers have towels by the on deck area...and quite a few do....I would find the butler annoying though

This thread is about things we like and dont like in a comp. My thought maybe should have been said differently:

We don't like

that a comp makes the cost of going in to 'take a look' at a comp too expensive for some folks (casual observers, hotel employees, etc) and that the splitting the comp into 'sessions' makes it an always empty room, especially for pro am days. My suggestion: free entry for all spectators. If you dance at night, you get to get in for the daytime session for free or at a reduced price. This will encourage folks to come in during those sessions that only seem to attract next of kin.